Another Hater up to no good

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In an echo of the "Million Man March" five years ago,
Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan has summoned those men and their wives,
children and friends, as well as Americans generally, to Washington on Monday to
show support for families.

For the "Million Family March," organizers hope that families of all races
and faiths will converge on Washington's Mall, the long park stretching west
from the Capitol, for a day of "atonement, reconciliation and responsibility."

The highlight will be a huge wedding ceremony for 10,000 couples conducted by
Farrakhan, similar to the mass nuptials made famous by the Unification Church's
Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a recent close friend of Farrakhan's whose group is helping
to organize the rally.

Unlike Monday's family event, Farrakhan's 1995 march was aimed only at black
men, causing an outcry among mainstream groups because it was seen as
exclusionary. Farrakhan's leadership was also under fire at the time because of
his espousal of black separatism and his strident anti-Semitic and anti-white
remarks.

This time, the mood appears to be less antagonistic toward Farrakhan, who
says he would like people of all races and religions to "rise above their
symbols" for the family rally.

"CHANGE IN QUALITY OF OUR LIVES"

Farrakhan said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he hoped the march would
mobilize families to form "a spiritual and moral, but (also) political and
economic, force that we could leverage to bring about real change in the quality
of our lives."

Farrakhan said he would speak at Monday's rally about the 70 percent of black
children born to unwed mothers. "The family unit in the black community, of all
the families in America, is the most troubled," he said.

He called the average U.S. divorce rate for all couples -- 50 percent in the
first three years of marriage -- a sign of "the decline of a civilization."

Farrakhan said the march would not endorse a presidential candidate because
the four major contenders -- Democrat Al Gore, Republican George W. Bush, the
Green Party's Ralph Nader and the Reform Party's Patrick Buchanan -- had not
responded to the march's agenda on family issues.

"It would be difficult for us to endorse a candidate that won't even speak to
the agenda that we put before them," Farrakhan said. He said that he had not
decided himself which he candidate to vote for.

ILLNESS AND SEEMING MODERATION

Since 1995, Farrakhan has had prostate cancer and, describing himself as a
changed man, appears to have toned down some of his more militant views.

The Nation of Islam is a nationalist religious movement that traces its
origin back to 1930. In 1976, Farrakhan led a militant faction into a separatist
movement.

Leading black civil rights movements have endorsed the family rally. The
Congressional Black Caucus, which did not support 1995's march, is one of the
sponsors this time round.

Even Democratic vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, the first Jew
on a major party's presidential ticket, has said he is prepared to meet
Farrakhan, drawing harsh criticism from some Jewish groups.

A host of celebrities such as singer Stevie Wonder, actor Will Smith and
tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams are scheduled to attend as well as
Jewish, Baptist, Muslim, Lutheran and Pentecostal leaders, march organizers
said.

There has been a string of marches modeled on the Million Man March,
including a Million Youth March in Harlem, a Million Mom March in Washington
against gun violence and a Million Woman March in Philadelphia.

"Our work was not finished in 1995, and so that was why the Million Family
March was called," march director Benjamin Muhammad said.

EROSION OF MARRIAGE

One of Farrakhan's main aims will be to strengthen the institution of
marriage, which he believes is steadily being eroded in America, especially in
the black community.

"Marriage is the basis upon which the family is built, and unsuccessful
marriage causes the destruction of family," Farrakhan said ahead of the
10,000-couple wedding.

Farrakhan invited Moon to the ceremony, but march organizers said the
Unification Church leader was unlikely to attend.

Farrakhan appeared at a Unification Church marriage ceremony in 1997 in
Washington and has since traveled to South Korea as a guest of the church.

Couples planning to attend the mass nuptials have been offered special
wedding packages from the march Web site, including gold or silver wedding bands
and a velvet sash for the bride and groom.

The march is taking place in a presidential election year, and Muhammad said
he hoped the family event would boost voter registration, an effect that the
1995 march had done among black men.

Washington police are expecting traffic chaos on Monday. Organizers say
thousands of buses will bring people into the city and several main streets will
be closed.

But they will not provide any crowd estimates because of a controversy over
numbers that erupted after the Million Man March. Organizers said then that 2
million men attended the event, while the police said the turnout was more like
400,000. After that, Washington police stopped estimating crowd sizes.

The march will be carried live on Black Entertainment Television as well as
in French, Arabic, Spanish and English on the organizer's web site,
http://www.millionfamilymarch.com.

If anyone ever took the time to visit Farrahkan's "Nation of Islam"
website a few years ago, they would know what cpr is talking about.
Anti-Jew, Anti-white, full of hate. Most Islamic religious leaders
denounced him long ago. But you anonymous posters are so fired up
against cpr, you'll even grasp even Farrahkan's hand to show that cpr
is "wrong." What's next, Hitler was a Saint?

Historically, Black leaders have been targeted for destruction by the
U.S. government. From Black nationalists like Marcus Garvey to civil
rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Blacks have been the
crosshairs of the government since we've assumed political offices.

The government wanted Chicago's first Black Mayor Harold Washington
and sent a convicted killer to entrap him, but it didn't work. They
wanted Washington, D.C., Mayor Marion Barry out of the way, and they
were successful for a moment.

Whether they are threatening or not, the fact that the political
leader is Black is reason enough to keep him or her destabilized--
thus keeping him or her from consolidating power--by harassing
and/investigating them.

Atlanta's Mayor Bill Campbell seems to have attracted the
government's attention. Recent reports say that the government is
snooping around Mr. Campbell's friends asking them to give up--or
perhaps create--some dirt on the mayor.

Once such friend, Atlanta Civil Service Review Board Chairman Fred
Prewitt, was dragged in by authorities, according to the mayor, and
told to give up some incriminating evidence on the mayor. When the
72-year-old Prewitt could not give them what they wanted, the
government indicted Prewitt on three counts of income tax fraud.

Two weeks later Prewitt's wife died of a massive stroke, more than
likely due to the added stress placed on her family by the
unjustified FBI probe.

Incredibly, the FBI also did not inform Mayor Campbell about a
$20,000 offer made by Michael Childs, a strip club owner, to injure
Mayor Campbell. Mr. Child's reportedly was later charged in a
federal indictment with paying to have three competing strip clubs
torched.

Over the last quarter century, according to the Joint Center for
Political and Economic Studies, a Washington think tank, 15 percent
of the 70 congressmen who have faced criminal charges were Black and
minorities. That's four time their percentage in Congress.

And with the changing demographics of the country, Black and Latino
office holders---by virtue of their increased numbers in population
of their community--can become even more threatening as the
possibility for united efforts will allow them to take power in many
instances in the future.

So it's clear that Black elected officials will continue to get the
government's attention far more frequently than their white
counterparts. Our politicians must keep the FBI at bay by being the
moral and upright politicians fighting for the little man that they
promised they would be when they campaigned for office.
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I'm no expert on Farrakhan, but I did see him on TV once, and I did
not get the same impression that some of you have. Perhaps you are
prejudiced toward blacks?

People often have to fight for their rights, but this does not
necessarily mean they are "haters". I have heard a LOT from CPR
though, much more than I actually wanted to hear, and he is the most
hateful person I have ever known.

I am not convinced of any "inclusivness" here, even with Farrakhan's
own words and "explanations."

Perhaps you are prejudiced toward blacks?
Perhaps, but having voted for a black man in the Presidential
Primaries, I'm not a very good bigot. Hey, here's another possiblity
for you to consider - perhaps Farrakhan is prejudiced towards whites
and Jews. In fact, I conclude that as the most likely fact, based on
the man's own writings. Now I ask for your evidence in my writings
that I am prejudiced towards blacks - being prejudiced towards
Farrakhan's bigotry doesn't count. And yet another possiblity - that
you are very, very, gullible! Even though you fear using a real
email address, you may at least want to consider getting/using your
own pseudonym, instead of the one with cpr's name in it. You deserve
your own ;)

I can't see anything in the Reuters press release that is unappealing.
If the event truly is a simple appeal for family values, then what is
the objection? If it is something more sinister, then that will be
obvious soon enough. Give it a chance, just don't give it any money.

"Hey, here's another possiblity for you to consider - perhaps
Farrakhan is prejudiced towards whites and Jews. In fact, I
conclude that as the most likely fact, based on the man's own
writings. Now I ask for your evidence in my writings that I am
prejudiced
towards blacks - being prejudiced towards Farrakhan's bigotry
doesn't count."

Doesn't count??? LOL

It may not count in YOUR mind, but from where I sit, that is precisely
what DOES count! You have your mind made up that Farrakhan a bigot
towards whites and Jews, and THAT IS YOUR PREJUDICE!!

If Farrakhan feels that certain groups of people are creating
obstacles to the rights of blacks, then he is entitled to speak up
about his views. That does not mean he is prejudiced, or a "hater" of
those people.

Maybe he has valid evidence that this is actually occurring. Do you
have any evidence that Farrakhan is a bigot? Please prove it.

Doesn't sound like a hate group to me. I think CPR has a problem in
that he projects his own mentality onto others. The rest of the world
is not as hateful as he and his right-wing bigot friends like Shrubya.
It's really sad that they assume others are as rotten as them, and
they don't see the hypocrisy in their own actions.

Browse through Farrakhans website before you decide to go, the links
I provided above will take you there. The guys a bigot, a fraud, and
I won't be attending - to do so would lend him credibility. You are
free to attend, oh ever changing name anonymous poster. Just don't
try to paint this event as "pro-family", just like the feedback on
the last march, it's "pro-Farrakhan".

As just one example, for years he and other top speechmakers in his organization have claimed that the majority of the slaves in the pre-Civil War South were owned by Jews. This is clearly a deliberate morphing of another quite separate view, that the majority of Jews in the South at that time owned slaves. The latter claim I think is possibly true, based on the behavior of prosperous whites of that time. The former claim is akin to the lies told by the Nazis using the "Big Lie" technique.

Shrub is an illegal alien who came here to impregnate white girls and
stiff them out of their fare share of abortion money. But, you guys
choose to ignore this and instead attack a man who is trying to make
a difference in this country. Shame on you.

Whether pro-family or pro-Farrakhan, seems whites voted with their
feet (firmly planted at home); I looked carefully for one pale face
in the crowd on the Mall shown on CNN, and the palest I could see was
one Indian chief on the panel of leaders.